T-minus 2 days until track-out!
Please remember that we are tracked out from October 1st through Wedesday, October 21st. Second Quarter begins Thursday , October 22nd.
This morning we did a little exercise where we explored the writing process through an analogy of a sculptor sculpting clay. Each student was given some play-doh, and we went through the process of creating something with clay just like we do with writing. We talked about how with writing we need to study our medium (words) just as a sculptor studies the clay or other things they might work with.
We decided that a writer, just like a sculptor, needs a focus, or a purpose to their writing. Our purpose lately has been to write an imagined narrative. For our sculpting we decided upon creating a pencil holder.
We went through several iterations of ideas for our pencil holders (pre-writes, planning) before setting upon a design and then really beginning work on it (rough draft). We then had others look at our sculpture (peer editing) before taking some of their ideas (and their clay) and adding them to our final product. The entire purpose of this is to impress upon students that writing is a process that has definite steps. Just like we went through steps when creating our pencil holders, we go through steps when we are creating stories, reports, or any type of writing.
Next we broke into smaller groups, and talked about some reading strategies and if we are really thinking about what we are reading.
We talked about some of our graphic organizers, and how they help us focus on what is really happening in a text, and whether we really understand it. Even if Mr. Potter doesn’t say we have to, it might help us sometimes to use a graphic organizer to better help us understand something we have read!
Tonight students have a neat passage to read about breaking things. They should create a main idea organizer at the end of the passage, and make sure that their main idea includes the who/what/where/when/why (if appropriate) and explains the central message of the passage. They should then answer some questions about the passage WITH REASONING!
It was then time for math, and we looked again at how when we are adding fractions, we must ensure that they are cut into the same size pieces. One way to do this is to see if you can take one fraction and cut it into the same size pieces as the other fraction. We can do this by multiplying by a form of one. For instance we could change the form of something like 2/3 into sixths by multiplying by 2/2.
Tonight students have 3 problems to do in this manner. There are some examples to help them and then the problems are at the bottom:
Finally we read some more of the Mysterious Benedict Society. We are into the climax of the book now, and things are going totally banay-nay at the Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened!
so, tl;dr
Read this neat passage, create a main idea organizer, and then answer questions with reasoning:
Answer the bottom three fraction addition problems, doing them as shown in the examples. Ensure you draw a pictorial representation of each fraction (the squares). And show me the form of one you multiplied by:
And as always, read! (get your agenda signed!)
Have a good one,
-Mr. Potter